500 POPULAR SCILNCE MONTHLY^. 



old academic training, with all its defects, in the hands of earnest, 

 cultured men and women, to the most elaborate carrying tout of 

 the newer methods in the hands of those who do not see the end 

 and purpose. 



Mistakes bear a certain family likeness. The most tangible 

 element in the older education was knowledge. Teachers were 

 selected for their knowledge alone, and education was defeated. 

 The most tangible element in the newer education is dexterity and 

 its product, the finished exercise. But this is likewise the product 

 of our industrial operations. Externally the school and the fac- 

 tory resemble each other. Both make things. But the difference 

 is this, and it is a great one : The school concentrates its effort 

 upon the making, and has regard only to the little workman ; the 

 factory values only the thing made, and is indifferent to its effect 

 upon the worker. What a sad travesty when the modern school 

 loses sight of this immense difference ! The effort to turn children 

 into artisans, and to do it in the name of education, is quite as 

 unfortunate as the more ancient effort to turn them into encyclo- 

 paedias. From the very circumstances of the time, it is far easier 

 to establish one of these factory schools than it is to establish a 

 true school. For, observe the teaching material that is available. 

 It is difficult to find men and women of broad culture who can 

 also use their hands. It is very easy to find artisans who are 

 willing to exchange the smaller pay and longer hours of the shop 

 for the pleasanter work of the schoolroom. They believe very 

 sincerely that the only qualification is the ability to turn out good 

 work. I admire their dexterity, I respect their earnestness, but I 

 say to them and I say to you that this is not enough. The artisan 

 habit of thought does not make for the unfolding and perfecting 

 of the human spirit. By the very conditions of his life, the arti- 

 san is a man of limited experience, and consequently of narrow 

 views. He is not the sort of man qualified to educate our chil- 

 dren. His thought is directed solely toward the product. His 

 skill is in the handling of dead material. What we want is some- 

 thing different from this ; it is a man whose thought is on the 

 process, whose cunning is in the handling of the living material, 

 the tissue of childhood. 



I have had a distinct purpose in mind in writing this article, 

 I shall have satisfied it if I have gained the reader's assent to 

 three propositions : 



1. That the object of modern education is fullness and integ- 

 rity of living ; is the most complete unfolding and perfecting of 

 the human spirit ; is the development of the more evolved out of 

 the less involved self. 



3. That the method by which this object is to be attained 

 must be psychological. Its foundations must be laid deep in the 



